Brian Burke may be the director of player personnel for Team USA’s Olympic team, but that doesn’t mean the dual citizen hasn’t been following the tight competition for Team Canada’s crease.
Burke’s choice for Canada’s No. 1 may surprise some.
“As of this week, I’d start Cam Ward,” Calgary Flames’ director of hockey operations told Sportsnet’s Eric Francis on Monday. “He’s out of his mind right now — you can’t beat him.
“Everybody’s worried about Canada’s goalies right now, but I’m not. I think they have three guys who could play. You just have to figure out who’s on at that moment.”
The 29-year-old Ward, a dark horse in the race, was not invited to Team Canada’s summer orientation camp in Calgary and missed nearly a month of action this season due to a lower-body injury.
Ward represented Canada at the world championships in 2007, 2008 and 2012. His overall record during those tournaments is 13-3, with a 2.55 GAA and .907 save percentage. He backstopped the nation to gold in ’07 and silver in ’08.
Crouched behind one of the NHL’s weaker defensive cores, the Carolina Hurricanes goaltender is 3-3-4 with a .918 save percentage and a 2.66 goals-against average.
Montreal’s Carey Price and Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo are widely believed to be the favourites to start in goal for Canada come February, while Mike Smith, Braden Holtby and Corey Crawford are also in the mix.
Burke believes Team Canada is the team to beat in Sochi, with one caveat.
“The team that scares the living hell out of me is Russia,” he said. “Because it’s their home soil, it’s going to be crazy there, and we hear rumours of huge bonuses for players if they win gold.”
